Grade Tampering Alleged For Hillhouse Athletes

NEW HAVEN — — School administrators are facing discipline after a report alleged grade tampering and preferential treatment for student athletes at Hillhouse High School.

"I will not tolerate improper changing of grades at any school and therefore disciplinary action will be handed out to staff members who were involved," said Superintendent Reginald Mayo.

But the superintendent has no reason to discipline Principal Kermit Carolina because Carolina — who earns about $148,000 a year — hasn't done anything wrong, said the principal's New Haven lawyer, Michael Jefferson.

He called the 28-page report, prepared by attorney Floyd Dugas of Milford, "biased" and "baseless." Jefferson charged that the report was politically motivated because Carolina didn't support — financially or otherwise — New Haven Mayor John DeStefano's re-election campaign, while Dugas did.

"They were hellbent on sticking something on my client — and that's what they did," he said, "And, it's crapola."

A spokesman for DeStefano declined to comment.

Dugas said, "The report speaks for itself."

"The fact that I may or may not have made a contribution to the mayor is, frankly, irrelevant," he said. Dugas said it would not — and did not — have any effect on his eight-month investigation.

The report, released Monday, found:

**Two student athletes went to summer school in 2010 for half the amount of time as other students, but earned twice as many credits. (Jefferson noted that Carolina did not become principal until July 2010, well into the students' summer school stints.)

**A coach asked that the students' original grades in English 1 and 2 (D's and D-'s) be replaced by the A's and A+'s they had received in summer school.

**The coach expressed concern the students' transcripts included the words "Summer School" in capital letters, saying he was concerned that "it would not look right or be given appropriate weight by the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association)." The two student athletes' official transcripts were then changed to indicate they took "College" English instead of English in "SUMMER SCHOOL."

"There is evidence of grade tampering, as well as preferential treatment of certain student-athletes by the Hillhouse administration," the report concludes.

It notes that there was no evidence of tampering with state-standardized tests.

But, it adds, "Finally, while there is no specific evidence of teachers being coerced into changing grades for student-athletes, given the brazen efforts to do so, steps need to be taken to change the climate that has developed at Hillhouse so teachers do not feel pressured to do so, and student-athletes are not afforded opportunities other students are not."

Jefferson also asked what "climate" had to be changed at the school if no pattern of abuse had been identified. He noted that only three student athletes were mentioned, while there are more than 200 athletes at the high school.

"There is a culture of political patronage at the board of [education]," Jefferson said. "There is a culture of coercing administrators into giving, making financial contributions to the mayor's campaign ... that's what we know to be true. ... They're asked for a donation ... but asked in quotation marks. A donation was demanded."

Jefferson questioned the motivation of releasing the report just as the school year starts. He noted that Carolina, who served as girls' and boys' basketball coach for about a decade, had never before been accused of tampering with grades.

The superintendent was "in talks" with some administrators and their union representatives Tuesday, according to New Haven public schools spokeswoman Abbe Smith.

"He definitely has, at this point, ruled out termination," she said, "He's not planning on firing anyone."

If Mayo does try to give Carolina detention or any other discipline, the principal is ready to face it — and fight it — head on, Jefferson said.

"If the superintendent feels the need to do so, do what you have to do, we'll do what we have to do," the lawyer said. "We're not running from anything. We're running to it."

Carolina was supported by a coach at one of Hillhouse's rivals.

Coach Ron Wilson's Windsor girls' team has been one of the main rivals of track powerhouse Hillhouse in recent years. Wilson also knows Carolina and Hillhouse from when his son played basketball for Windsor.

"I know [Carolina] and I think he is a fine, upstanding man and it is the same for the other coaches I deal with at Hillhouse," Wilson said. "I would have to see more conclusive evidence to believe something like that. I don't believe it."